It's a long way up, I know, and though you started on this journey enthusiastically, you might be feeling a little winded, depleted, even defeated. What should you do? Where can I find a renewed sense of energy and joy for the road ahead? Especially when I can see it straight up a mountainside?
The answer lies in this week's Parsha, Devarim, Moshe Rabbeinu begins his final address to the Jewish people, recounting their forty-year journey through the desert. He recalls the trials, the triumphs, and most poignantly, the missteps, especially the episode of the spies. It was then that the people, faced with the challenge of entering the Land of Israel, became overwhelmed by fear. "You were afraid," Moshe reminds them, "and you said, 'Because Hashem hates us, He brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us.'"
The tragedy of that moment wasn't the physical challenge, but the internal one. Giants and fortified cities didn't daunt the people; they were daunted by doubt. They doubted themselves and, ultimately, they doubted Hashem. They saw a mountain too high, and forgot who gave them the strength to climb.
Chassidus teaches us that fear and avoidance often mask and curb our deepest potential. The Rebbe would often emphasize that when a Jew encounters difficulty, it's not a sign of divine neglect but of divine trust. Hashem believes in you enough to stretch you, to squeeze your full potential out of you. Just as Moshe urged the people: "Do not fear, and do not be broken before them", so too, the Torah calls us to lean in rather than retreat.
Each of us faces our own "Promised Land", a goal that seems far off, a relationship we need to repair, a mitzvah we've been avoiding, or a spiritual step we've been postponing. From a distance, it may feel like too much. But if we learn anything from Devarim, it's that we are more capable than we think—and more supported than we realize. Hashem doesn't ask us to be perfect; he asks us to progress.
And especially on Shabbos Chazon, the Shabbat before Tisha B'Av when each of us is shown a vision, a chazon, of the Third Beis HaMikdash, we’re reminded what lies atop the mountain: not just personal progress, but a world transformed. We're not climbing aimlessly; we're ascending toward a time of Moshiach, when peace, wholeness, and divine clarity will fill the world. A time when there will be no sickness, no hatred, no war; only unity, healing, and purpose. That vision isn’t meant to make us wistful, but determined. It’s a glimpse of what we're working toward, and it should ignite within us a deeper resolve to keep going. When the journey feels steep, we must remember the summit: a future where the pain of the past is healed, and the potential of creation is finally fulfilled.
So take that first step forward; and trust the rest will follow.